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Building Strong Families

Project

Overview

Project Overview

At the time this project began, a third of all babies in the United States were born to unmarried mothers, and the fraction was even higher among low-income families. Although many children of unwed couples flourish, research has shown that, on average, they are at higher risk of living in poverty and of developing social, behavioral, and academic problems than are other children. Partly because of these findings, marriage figures prominently in discussions about how public policy can help promote low-income parents’ self-sufficiency and children’s well-being. Although the idea of actively encouraging parents to marry is controversial, it is widely agreed that at the time of their child’s birth most unwed couples are romantically involved with one another, share an interest in their child’s well-being, and hope and expect to marry. But these shared interests and goals seldom culminate in marriage.

A project led by Mathematica Policy Research (MPR) in collaboration with MDRC and three other subcontractors, the Building Strong Families (BSF) project was a large-scale demonstration of marriage and relationship education for low-income, romantically involved, unmarried couples who were expecting or who had recently had a child together. It was also a rigorous evaluation of the programs’ implementation and effectiveness, using random assignment of eligible couples to either a program or control group. Launched in 2002 and funded by the Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the project resulted in the operation of seven BSF programs.

The Building Strong Families evaluation assessed the effects of eight programs offering a similar model of healthy relationship skills and support services to interested low-income unmarried parents around the time of the birth of a child. This report presents final results from data collected 36 months after couples enrolled in the study.

Although sites individually tailored the BSF program model to their own particular situations, across all sites the model included three main components:

Group sessions in marriage and relationship skills to enhance couples’ understanding of marriage, with service delivery concentrated during the period soon before and soon after the birth of the child. This was the core component of BSF.

Individual-level support from family coordinators, including encouragement for program participation, reinforcement of marriage and relationship skills, emotional support, and assessment regarding the need for referrals to other services.

The evaluation of the BSF programs addressed questions on four interrelated topics:

Organization. What organizational conditions — such as type of staff or number of services — made it possible to implement programs designed to promote healthy marriage among low-income unwed parents?

Operations. What challenges arose in the design, implementation, and operation of BSF programs? What services did the programs offer, and how did they complement existing programs for low-income families?

Participation. Who participated in BSF programs, for how long did they do so, and in what activities did they engage? How did participation differ across subgroups?

Impacts. How did BSF programs affect couples’ attitudes and expectations about marriage, the quality and stability of their relationships, and whether they married? How did the programs affect parents, their relationships with their children, and their children’s well-being and development? Which program designs had the most beneficial effects?

The Building Strong Families evaluation assessed the effects of eight programs offering a similar model of healthy relationship skills and support services to interested low-income unmarried parents around the time of the birth of a child. This report presents final results from data collected 36 months after couples enrolled in the study.

Targeted at low-income couples who volunteered to participate, the BSF sample included unmarried couples who had a biologically related child under the age of three months or who were expecting a child when they joined the study. In addition, couples had to be either unmarried but romantically involved or married after the conception of the child that made them eligible for the program. Each member of the couple had to be at least 18 years old and speak a language in which BSF was offered, English or Spanish. Finally, only couples who were not involved in domestic violence were eligible.

The seven BSF sites were located in Georgia (Atlanta), Maryland (Baltimore), Louisiana (Baton Rouge), Florida (Broward and Orange Counties), Indiana (Allen, Lake, and Marion Counties), Oklahoma, and Texas (Houston and San Angelo). A total of 5,103 couples were randomly assigned to either BSF or a control group that could not receive BSF services.

Implementation analysis. The research team monitored program operations at BSF sites from the start. An analysis of these findings appears in the report Implementation of the Building Strong Families Program, prepared by the MPR team. This implementation analysis focuses on the programs’ design, development, and operations during the first 6 to 14 months of the evaluation. It also documents recruitment and enrollment practices, describes the characteristics of enrolled couples, provides data on program participation, and summarizes the experiences of participant couples in the program group. It is based on qualitative data from site visits to each location, information from monitoring efforts, and structured data recorded in each program’s management information system. The implementation report found that all sites successfully implemented the core marriage and relationship skills component, but achieving consistently high levels of participation by couples in group sessions proved challenging. Although not all couples attended group sessions, those who did attend got a substantial dose of relationship skills training.

Impact analysis. At each site, couples in the target population who were interested in the program were randomly assigned to the program or to a control group. MPR conducted a 15-month survey and a second follow-up at 36 months after random assignment. Based on the surveys, the research team (including both MPR and MDRC staff) estimated the BSF programs’ effects on parents’ earnings and use of public assistance; on mother-father relationships; on family structure and functioning; on fathers’ involvement in child rearing; on parent-child relationships and the home environment; and on children’s well-being and cognitive and social development. The resulting findings are presented in the report The Long-Term Effects of Building Strong Families.

The Building Strong Families evaluation assessed the effects of eight programs offering a similar model of healthy relationship skills and support services to interested low-income unmarried parents around the time of the birth of a child. This report presents final results from data collected 36 months after couples enrolled in the study.

As Vice President for Accountability and Deployment, Barbara Goldman is part of MDRC’s corporate management team, responsible for assessing staffing needs and leading MDRC’s quality assurance and risk management program covering all of

The Building Strong Families evaluation assessed the effects of eight programs offering a similar model of healthy relationship skills and support services to interested low-income unmarried parents around the time of the birth of a child. This report presents final results from data collected 36 months after couples enrolled in the study.